


Call Me

by Lafeae



Series: Random AU Ideas [6]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bookshop, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Romance, but the world’s weakest coffee shop AU ever, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 10:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20673893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: Joey works in a coffee shop attached to a bookstore, and has a regular customer who he’s been eyeing for quite some time.He just can’t work up the courage to ask for the man’s name.—Puppyshipping/ violetshipping, AU





	Call Me

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an idea in a discord forum. Same on that produced ‘Fantasy Aisle’ from MistressArafax. So for Arxsia :3

“You know, staring at him won’t make him come over here,” Téa said. She leaned in close to where Joey perched himself behind the espresso machine, staring at a chestnut-haired man reading in the corner of the coffee shop. “It’s just going to make him think you’re psycho.”

“I’m tryin’ t’ figure out what he’s readin’,” Joey snapped back.

“You could, oh I don’t know, ask him?”

“What good is that gonna do? He’s readin’, I got eyes. I’ll figure it out.”

Téa rolled her eyes. Not that it surprised Joey. This felt like an almost daily occurrence, though Joey couldn’t say exactly how often his regular came in. In the beginning, it amused Joey to no end that there was a regular customer at a coffee shop attached to a bookstore. He felt like this was the sort of place someone went to because it was convenient, not so they could grab a cup and sit and read for a long time. 

“Why do you want to know if you’re never going to talk to him?” Téa prodded.

“We talk.”

“Yeah? What about?”

“Ya know. Books an’...weather...coffee...”

Téa rolled her eyes again. “Do you know what handsome’s name is?”

“Uhhhh...”

“Exactly.”

“Hey, that don’t matter. We talk enough, that’s all. One of these days I’ll crack him open an’ we’ll have a good ol’ conversation about,” Joey peered over the espresso machine again, “_The Doors of Perception_. Sounds fun anyways.”

Téa’s flat expression said otherwise. Without another word she went back to work, and Joey kept looking at the regular when he wasn’t swamped with customers.

Joey couldn’t say what he liked about the man. He was a little weird looking. Pale and thin, tall, with sharp cheeks and deep set blue eyes that could look right through someone’s soul. But he liked the quirky, half-broken grin that the man had. Never a real smile. He looked more snarling than that, but when he came in from the cold, and his nose and cheeks were as pink as his lips, the grin managed to be soft. All-in-all, it made Joey curious.

Day-in and day-out, he kept track of his regular. He attempted small talk, with awkward questions like, “So ya like the smell of books? It’s definitely weird, eh?”

“It’s just paper.”

“Yeah, but...ya know.”

Or:

“What is a door of perception? Don’t all ‘em of have the same kind of like...frame an’ stuff?”

The man quirked a brow. “If you’re feverish and serving food, you should go home. It’s gross.”

That one was his fault. He’d waited too long and the man wasn’t reading the book anymore, though he was sure that he caught of glimmer of ‘I-saw-what-you-did-there’ in the man’s eye. Or maybe it was just more snarling. He seemed uppity. With his turtlenecks and blazers, Oxfords, ties, cuff links. He never seemed to be coming or going from anywhere, but he made himself look important. From money, he guessed. There was a black credit card in the man’s wallet, even if he always paid in cash.

Through all of it, Joey never got his name. He always meant to after every clumsy interaction, but it always got forgotten. He knew the man knew his name. He’d said it once after one of Joey’s terrible attempts, so that was a plus.

Finally, though, Joey told himself he was going to do this right. He wasn’t going to ask another silly question. He figured the man came every three days or so, and he would stay for about three hours. Which evened our to about a coffee an hour.

When the man arrived, Joey went through the standard customer service script, which garnered a little quirk of the man’s brow. After, he peeked until he figured out what the man was reading: _Moby Dick_. Which both made Joey chuckle and immediately tell himself not to make a dumb joke.

After the hour, he made up the usual second order (Americano, because apparently black coffee was the bread to the Americano sandwich of this man’s caffeine habit) and took it out to him while Téa manned the station.

When he stood in front of the man, however, he lost most of his nerve and froze.

“Do you mind?” The man asked, lowering the book.

“Uh, yeah, actually. Brought ya this. I was about t’ go on break, an’ I figured I’d give it to ya before I did,” he said. He set the coffee down but didn’t back away. “So, that’s the book about the whale, ain’t it? The whole ‘call me, Ishmael!’, right?”

“Very astute.”

“Cool. Always meant to read that one, but I guess we never read it in school an’ I jus’ sorta forgot about it.”

“I see.” The man lowered the book. “I can’t imagine how. You work in a bookstore. With books.”

Joey chuckled. “Well, technically I work in a coffee shop so...”

“Whatever. It’s the same thing.”

“No, it ain’t,” Joey argued. Okay, maybe he was a little irritating. But this was fun. “Either way, I gotta say that I’ve been wantin’ to read more lately since workin’ here. But not really. Only whatever it is you’ve been readin’ since I see ya always readin’ somethin’ kind of interesting. Which, I always wondered, why read here? Ya know you can buy the books, right?”

“It’s quiet,” the man said, sipping the coffee. “Usually. I like the atmosphere. And the book smell.”

“See, told ya it was a thing.”

The man rolled his eyes and smirked. It looked good on him, mostly because it was playful, and Joey knew it was playful. He called that a win.

“Well, now that this little detour is over, I’m going to get back to reading,” the man said. Before he did, however, he reached inside his coat and began pulling out his wallet.

Joey waved his hand. “Nah. Its on-the-house,” he said, and went to walk away. Without the man’s name. Again. Spinning on his heel, he added: “Well, almost free. I figure after all this book talk ya owe me your name.”

“It’s not exactly legal tender.”

“Is that a no?” Joey asked, full of confidence. He was a terrible flirt, and beneath his puffed-out chest, his heart was hammering.

It took the man a few seconds to let his wry smirk turn into a little, considerate grin. “Seto Kaiba. Most people call me Kaiba, though.”

“What do ya want me to call ya, then?” Joey asked, relief washing over him.

“You said you were going on break right?” Seto asked. Though it had been a lie, Joey looked back to Téa, bored during the slow moment, and figured she would give him ten minutes or so. She had been the one egging him on. “Well?”

“Yeah, right. I am.”

“Then take a seat. We’ll figure out what to call each other, and maybe...when to call each other?” Seto asked.

The precarious question made Joey bite back nervous laughter and a ridiculous question of ‘don’t call me Ishmael’. He fell into seat the across from Seto, beaming.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know what a coffee shop AU is and I’ve never read one. This feels like it. Idk. xD this will probably be the closest I ever get to one, so that’s something. 
> 
> Anyways, tell me what you think!


End file.
